San Francisco Historical Church Restoration

Restoring a California-registered historic landmark after a major fire is one of the most technically demanding categories of construction work that exists. The California Office of Historic Preservation and the San Francisco Historical Review Board imposed exacting standards: every restored element had to match the original to a degree that would pass expert scholarly scrutiny. The dome — one of the church's most architecturally significant features — had to be reconstructed in its exact original form. The hand-crafted wood windows, designed to 19th-century specifications, could not be sourced from any manufacturer — they had to be custom-fabricated by artisan craftsmen to match surviving examples and original drawings. And running through all of it: the entire structural system had to be upgraded to meet current California seismic standards — without any alteration visible from the interior or exterior. These requirements do not coexist easily. Meeting all of them simultaneously required a level of multi-discipline coordination, specialized sourcing, and technical craftsmanship that most firms are simply not structured to deliver.

We began with a comprehensive laser scanning survey of every surviving architectural element, producing a millimeter-accurate digital model of the original structure. Working from that model, our engineering and design team reverse-engineered the exact geometries of the dome, facade profiles, column details, and window openings — enabling our craftsmen to fabricate replacements indistinguishable from the originals. The wooden windows were hand-fabricated by specialized artisan joiners to exact period specifications, with finish details that matched the material and joinery methods of 19th-century craftsmanship. The dome was reconstructed panel by panel to the original profile, with no visible seam or deviation from the pre-fire form. The seismic upgrade — modern structural steel reinforcement integrated into the wall systems and foundation — was designed by our structural engineers to be completely invisible from both the interior nave and the exterior facade. When the California Historic Preservation Board conducted its final review, they approved the restoration without a single required revision. The rebuilt church today is structurally superior to any point in its history, and the congregation cannot tell the difference.